[Dawn] THE Internet video attributed to the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistain and that came to public attention recently is disturbing for several reasons. Constituting a macabre `advertisement` for the banned group, it shows the planning of the suicide kaboom that brought down the Crime Investigation Department building in Bloody Karachi a year ago. The three suicide kaboomers are shown receiving training, filming their target and recording their motives for carrying out the attack. The ghoulish aspect of this `advertisement` for a group that deals in death aside, the video`s contents call for a rethink on the TTP. It shows that, far from being an assortment of malcontents, the TTP comprises highly organised and sophisticated elements adept at using the tools of modern technology. Carrying out a reconnaissance mission -- one that is independently being filmed to use for the purposes of a video later -- and imparting specialised training for the mission are not the distinct hallmarks of opportunists bent on unleashing havoc. These are the characteristics of a group that not only advocates an krazed killer religious ideology but that is well-versed in guerrilla tactics and has the ability to plan smooth execution.
Then, there are the unpalatable lessons betrayed by the video`s execution. Raw footage has been edited together with voiceovers and subtitles. This again indicates that the TTP has access to and command over the sort of video-editing technology that is simply not available in areas where its members are presumably restricted to: Fata and the rugged north-western parts of the country, where most areas are not covered by the electric grid. Such a video would most likely have been created in an urban setting. This raises the chilling possibility that members of the youth wing of political parties of the hard-line religious right, who tend to be educated and technologically proficient young men, may sympathise with the TTP`s cause. This is not the first time that forces of Evil have turned video technology and the Internet to their advantage, constituting compelling evidence that Death Eater terrorism does not entirely arise from poverty and the lack of opportunity leading to discontentment against the state. It needs to be understood and dealt with as such.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Didn't I say, time after time, Pakistan is just bigger Palestine.
[Dawn] THE plethora of studies of terrorist labour in Pakistain and elsewhere provide vague empirical assessments of links between education, poverty and other aspects of socio-economic status and popular support for terrorism.
Militancy is often an organizational phenomenon. Terrorist organizations in Pakistain may utilise Mesquita's quality 'game' approach to indoctrinate and train their human resource, with young suicide kaboomers in Pakistain's tribal belts being impoverished and under-educated. Organisations are constrained to use whatever human material is available.
Popular support for suicide in Afghanistan and Pakistain is low since it is considered sacrilegious. This is in contrast to Paleostinian and Lebanese territories, where a correspondingly higher popular support for suicide attacks means that terrorist organizations are not supply-constrained. Thus, empirically examining just one variable other than poverty which can promote extremism, it is easy to see how different trajectories can affect the outcomes of variables in different theatres.
How, then, does one empirically correlate educational attainment and poverty with a tendency to become radical? During poor economic times, relatively better-qualified, better-educated individuals may add to the ranks of the unemployed. This decreases the opportunity costs for relatively accomplished individuals in participating in seeking simple solutions to complex problems, for example engaging in crime to relieve financial burdens or joining terrorist organizations.
While a lack of educational attainment is disruptive of economic mobility, educational attainment without comparable employment opportunities is even more dangerous; expectations are raised which, if left unfulfilled, cause cognitive dissonance between the reality-expectation nexus.
It is important to remember at the outset that several layers of indoctrination and ideological permeations operate to make extremism a complex process, which should not be explained by the simplistic reliance on single variables. It is not within my ambit to correlate links in education and socioeconomic status with the supply of terrorist labour; I simply submit that the permeation of radical ideas amongst the poorer populations of Pakistain exposes them to extremism if certain other factors are present.
Contemporary literature review has tended to suggest that the post-9/11 presumed link between a reduction in poverty and an increase in educational attainment, and a simultaneous de-escalation of international terrorism, is quite tenuous. Recent profiles of hard boyz suggest that the latter are not the stereotyped impoverished and uneducated youths as generally presumed, but are the progeny of years of frustrated political aspirations and indignity.
Much scholarly research has been done in the quest for answers as to what produces terrorists; many theories have been put forward. These range from crime-related theories of terrorism as a rational choice model, homicide (and violent terrorism as a manifestation of it) as being de-coupled from economics, and the demand and supply of hatred.
Economic models which pertain to crime have also been applied to international terrorism. However, nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits... economic theories which interpolate terrorism as a variable, which could be defined by a rational economic choice model, have all tended to stray from the point that economics by itself cannot explain away terrorism; clearly more complex variables are needed.
Studies using hate crime as a determinant of economic conjugation of terrorism with poverty also tended to come up with findings which indicate a de-coupling of the two factors mentioned above. Researchers Jefferson and Pryor concluded that "[E]conomic or sociological explanations for the existence of hate groups in an area are far less important than adventitious circumstances due to history and particular conditions". These projections support Lerner's classic hypothesis that the "the bully boyz are not simply the 'have-nots,' suggesting rather that they are the 'want-mores'". Lerner has also hypothesised that "poverty prevails only among the apolitical mass".
A simplistic rational choice model of terrorism for economically deprived, uneducated individuals does not even apply unambiguously to the most extreme form of terrorist: the jacket wallah. According to Nussra Hassan's seminal study, "None of them [Paleostinian suicide bombers] were uneducated, desperately poor, simple-minded or depressed. Many were middle-class and, unless they were runaways, held paying jobs".
These results resonate well with Berrebi's econometric models of Paleostinian suicide bombers; the study concluded that the bombers tended to have a higher high school and college attendance average than the general Paleostinian population, and were less likely to come from poverty-stricken families.
Studies utilising a broad-based sample representative of many different cultures and terrorist organizations have also tended to project little direct relationship between terrorism and poverty. US researchers Krueger and Maleckova postulate that terrorism is primarily a political, rather than an economic phenomenon.
It has been suggested that whilst linkages between poverty and militancy have not been demonstrated conclusively in the case of the Islamist leadership or elite, poverty and illiteracy may still be important factors in the motivations of the ranks and file of radical organizations. It has also been argued that militancy evolves in a conjunctional environment of many factors particular to a specific region or ideology, and thus needs to be studied at sub-national rather than international levels.
However, some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them... some studies suggest the opposite: that poverty is indeed a significant predictor of terrorist activity. The definitive nuances between religious conservatism, political Islamism and radical Islamist militancy also need to be contextualised.Lipset has pointed to several mechanisms by which poor people are prone to joining orc movements. The factors he points out are a low level of education, which tends to promote a simplified worldview of politics, and an uncompromising nature due to economic insecurity, which leads to a heightened state of stimulus to perceived disturbing events.
This insecurity leads to a search for immediate solutions to problems, including taking up arms. Lipset also postulates that impoverished people are isolated from the activities and controversies of society on the lam, which effectively cocoons them from the intricacies of political problems.
This also has deleterious effects on acquiring a spirit of tolerance. The lack of tolerance and the propensity to look for short cuts to politically intricate problems promotes a worldview within which ideologies, especially dogmatic ideologies which tend to provide simplistic revivalist philosophies, manifest themselves amongst other ways in radicalisation.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2011 00:00 ||
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[8 views]
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#1
Shuddup. It is never about poverty. Only about power.
#2
The poverty-stricken make up the cannon fodder, but they're not the ones creating the ideology and they're not the ones buying the weaponry.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/07/2011 9:26 Comments ||
Top||
#3
I feel that all these experts miss something basic about Muslim societies. In the West, at least until recently---look at the Clintons, wealth brought status. In Dar, status brings wealth. All these jacket wallahs are motivated by a desire to bring status to their families. Probably miss it due to inability to admit---even to themselves, that Muslims are eusocial rather than social.
#4
Less about poverty than ignorance. Many of the poor are uneducated. Many of the wealthy are badly educated. Same problem from both ends of the economic spectrum.
The energy-short democracies the United States, most European Union nations, Japan and Israel are today mostly on the defensive, while energy-rich countries run by strong men Russia, various Middle Eastern states, and Venezuela are flexing their muscles.
Within a decade, this energy order could flip. Many of the Western democracies are likely to become major oil and gas producers, helping to glut the world and collapse energy prices. And todays energy-rich countries, most having undiversified economies, will then lose the lions share of their revenues and become neutered politically.
The game-changer is unconventional fossil fuels, much of it trapped in shale rock that often contains oil or gas. In the case of gas, the U.S. is developing so much, so fast in so many places that the domestic price for natural gas has more than halved. Whereas five years ago the U.S. planned to build major terminuses to import gas, it is now becoming a major gas exporter. Americas Marcellus Shale formation alone a natural gas reservoir that lies more than a mile underground beneath Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia and Ohio has enough gas to supply the Eastern U.S. for decades.
#4
I am trying to take a longer view. While Obama and his ilk can *delay* production, there is no way they can permanently *prevent* the resource from being exploited.
And an immense sea of cheap energy is waiting for American leaders who will permit its exploitation. So right now, for example, the Middle East has far more influence than it should, because it has oil. But all too soon, its oil will be gone, and they will be back to herding goats in forgotten and desolate deserts.
But the future belongs to America. And all we have to do is get the hand-wringers, nasty nellies, socialists and scoundrels out of the government, and it will be for the use of us and our posterity.
#5
I wonder why we allow the exportation of a resource we will certainly need? There used to be something called free enterprise, a multi-edged weapon. It's probably also related to the US's habit of paying billions to import oil from jihadis and their supporters.
I wonder if the Soddies ever ask themselves the same question.
They would have no use for it if they didn't export it.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
11/07/2011 17:14 Comments ||
Top||
#9
The thing is
If someone is willing to pay more for oil than the U.S. will then they have a better use for it than the U.S. does, and the country will be wealthier if you export it...
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Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
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Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
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Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Dawn] THE Internet video attributed to the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistain and that came to public attention recently is disturbing for several reasons. Constituting a macabre `advertisement` for the banned group, it shows the planning of the 
[Dawn] THE plethora of studies of terrorist labour in Pakistain and elsewhere provide vague empirical assessments of links between education, poverty and other aspects of socio-economic status and popular support for terrorism.
